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Chidanand Rajghatta
WASHINGTON, JULY 6: Pakistan has already begun backsliding from its commitment to withdraw forces intruding across the Line of Control following reports of a hostile reaction from across the political spectrum back home to what is being construed as a ``sell-out'' of the Kashmiri cause by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Islamabad's hedging is being voiced even before the ink on the Washington deal between Clinton and Sharif had dried. Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz suggested in a BBC interview that the withdrawal would happen only if the Kashmir problem is ministered to by the rest of the world.
``If the mujahideen or the freedom fighters, as we call them, are going to be persuaded to withdraw, then they obviously would do so if the world is paying some attention to their concerns and their right of self-determination,'' Aziz told BBC World Television from Washington.
The immediate linkage was a direct repudiation of the joint statement issued only hours before which clearly laid down the sequenceof events: Pakistan would first withdraw forces before presenting any wish list. And Kashmir, or any other issue between the two countries, would have to be discussed within the bilateral framework.
Also, Clinton would take ``personal interest'' in encouraging an expeditious resumption of those bilateral efforts, and that too once the sanctity of the LoC has been fully restored.
Reports said Aziz's virtual disavowal of the agreement followed panic-stricken calls from Islamabad by Pakistan's Information Minister Mushahid Hussain about the rising anger and tension back home over the Washington Accord.
Following the growing turmoil, and the prospect of a torrid reception, Sharif's return home was delayed. The beleaguered prime minister went to the White House on Monday for what was described as an informal meeting and photo-op session with President Clinton, apparently to offset the impression that he had not been entertained at the Presidential mansion on Sunday. The workaday official meeting between thetwo leaders took place in Blair House across the street without any trappings of protocol or pomp.
The explanation from the Pakistani side was that Clinton inquired with Sharif about his family as he walked him out of Blair House on Sunday. Sharif told him that his wife was with him, upon which Clinton asked to meet her.
But Kulsoom Sharief had already gone out shopping. Clinton suggested that they drop by at the White House the next morning. Sharif, who was to have left for New York that evening, checked into the Willard Hotel next door to the White House, and kept his appointment in the morning.
The minor protocol coup did little to dilute the prospect of a real uprising back home. US officials and analysts are watching with increasing trepidation the gathering storm in Pakistan. Political leaders from the moderate side of the spectrum like Benazir Bhutto and Imran Khan, to those on the lunatic and maverick fringe like former Army Chief Mirza Beg and former ISI chief Hamid Gul, pilloried Sharif forwhat was mostly described as a betrayal of the Kashmiri cause.
The one silver lining was the reported remarks of the Pakistani army chief Pervaiz Musharraf, who said there was ``complete understanding'' between the army and the government on Sharif's US visit.
Musharraf, a rare Mohajir to head the Pakistan army, told a Pakistani newspaper that some 1,500 to 2,000 mujaheddin fighting in Kargil and Drass would be asked to leave their positions. The modus operandi for withdrawal will be devised when the prime minister returns from the US, he said. When he was asked what if the mujahideen refused to withdraw from the peaks, he replied, ``We can only request them.''
Meanwhile, Pakistani officials also tried to put their own spin on the joint statement. Spokesman Tarif Altaq said at a briefing for Pakistani journalists that since the US had called for restoration of the LoC ``according to the Simla Agreement,'' this meant all those areas which had been occupied by India after 1972, including some areas inSiachen, were also open to withdrawal if the sanctity were to be restored.
But US officials reject this interpretation of the Washington deal, saying it was ``not about the history of that (Simla) Agreement, or, indeed, the history of the Kashmir crisis.'' Said a senior official: ``It's about this particular situation in Kargil and the posts that have been overtaken.''
In Islamabad, Musharraf himself appeared to delink Kargil from Siachen, saying he was ``not anxious about an Indian withdrawal from Siachen as it had retaliated to Indian aggression there for the last 16 years.''
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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